Story:
As far as the story goes: The Prince is finally returning home from the Island Of Time, with Kaileena in tow. When he sails into the harbor, he finds all of Babylon aflame, and suddenly realizes that since he got rid of the Sands, the Vizier is alive and well, and has made a grab for the throne. A catapult then sinks his ship, Kaileena is washed ashore and captured by the Vizier's troops, and the Prince finds himself in the middle of a burning city with nothing but a discarded scimitar. Heroics ensue.

One can view the entire Sands of Time trilogy now as a coming-of-age story, redemption through acceptance and eventually growing up. Warrior Within represents the Prince's angst-ridden adolescence, full of misdirected rage and charmless anger. If Sands of Time was a story of the innocence of youth, The Two Thrones is a story of reconciliation, of a man growing up, accepting responsibility for his mistakes and becoming whole again.

Gameplay:
The developers at Ubisoft have been building these levels for two years now, and it really shows. The focus now is less of slowly jumping from place to place and looking where to go next, and more of seeing a long chain of wall runs and triangle jumps and performing it in one shot. It is possible to reach that gamer's high and begin intuitively performing the stunts; I remember multiple occasions where my hands would get ahead of my mind, and I'd find myself at the end of a chamber with no clear way to explain how I did it.

If you lack patience for bad level design (like myself) or are a frequenter of gamefaqs.com, fear not. All it takes is looking up and around for familiar elements. Even if you only find one, once you get to it, you see the next three, and the next part of the level. If you can't see one, start running around and up and down things; you're bound to see it eventually.

Final Verdict:
I plunked down the cash for it, because now I own the entire series. If you aren't much of a collector, or know you won't play it again (malarkey!), then rent it. Depending on your skill level, you might need to rent it twice.